Knock at door put me on track

I was a teenager in the 1990s. I remember what teenagers got up to and how they thought.

By the age of 13 most children are introduced to alcohol, drugs and behaviour of an antisocial kind. They are usually introduced to them by children their own age or a little older, or sometimes by parents, which is quite saddening.

I remember some pupils at my school who were always on the streets, drinking, taking drugs and terrorising the neighbourhoods, all before the age of 13 . I also remember their parents. They consisted of two kinds – the naive and clueless, and the careless and irresponsible. In both cases, the parents had no positive influence on their children. They either didn't care or didn't think.

The pupils with parents who involved themselves in their lives were more responsible, more aware, more disciplined and respected other people and themselves.

A parent's ability or inability to parent a child has a direct result on the child's behaviour. I believe most parents are almost blind towards their children.

My parents didn't educate me much, or offer advice or much guidance. Therefore I was able to run riot if I liked, and at one stage I did.

But a knock at the door from a police officer put an end to it, not because of my parents but because of the fright the police gave me as they read me my rights.

Tough, I thought at the time, but a worthy lesson had been learned, one that I needn't have learned had my parents been involved in my whereabouts and what I was getting up to. Involve yourself with your child; get to them first, before someone of an unworthy kind does.

Guide them, offer them advice, and most of all offer them security, and they will live up to the words spoken by the most important and influential people a child will ever have, their parents.

Ashleigh Ellison, Primrose Way, Kidderminster.